- [TikToker] I looked to my left
and there's just this huge, like, gaping hole.
- So that horrifying mid-flight nightmare
was Alaska Airlines flight 1282,
which you've probably seen by now,
but there's a lot more coming out now
since the news initially broke, right?
It happened on Friday with the Boeing 737 MAX 9.
You have 177 people on board,
it's taking off from Portland, Oregon,
and about six minutes in,
while climbing at roughly 16,000 feet,
a door plug near the back of the plane suddenly blows out.
Well, it resulted in a rapid and explosive depressurization
or in other words just like a big damn boom.
It didn't result in what movies have taught me, that
a whole row of people would get sucked out of the plane.
But you did have the entire plane rattling,
lights flickering, oxygen masks dropping down,
people screaming helplessly,
which hey, if there is a time to scream, it's then.
One passenger recalling,
"The first thing I thought was I'm gonna die."
Another sharing in a TikTok.
- We had no idea what was going on.
I truly thought it was the engine.
I thought an engine had blown out,
a wing had gone down.
Like that's how loud and, like jolting,
that, like, second was,
that I thought we were going to nosedive at any second.
For a full 15 to 20 minutes, felt like a lifetime,
I thought every second that went on
we were gonna start nosediving
like those planes that went down a few years ago.
- But luckily the plane doesn't nosedive.
Instead you see things like
it rips headrests off their seats,
cell phones get sucked out of the plane.
There were witnesses saying that
there was a boy near this gaping hole
that had his shirt torn off his body.
And then it got sucked out
while his mom was holding onto him
to make sure he didn't follow.
The cockpit door also immediately flew open.
You know, a fun little surprise for the pilots.
And apparently, you know, they put on their oxygen masks,
they're like, "Hey, we gotta consult the checklist.
It tells us exactly what to do in this moment,"
and then that checklist flew out the door behind them.
You know, you got flight attendants trying to shut the door.
The checklist is gone,
but the captain grabs a quick reference handbook instead.
The crew makes an emergency distress call.
They request permission to descend low enough
for people to breathe without oxygen masks.
- [Pilot] We've just depressurized,
we're declaring an emergency.
We need to descend down to 10,000.
- And thankfully there were no serious injuries.
They got back to the airport just 35 minutes after takeoff.
So I imagine like in an ideal world,
they wish they didn't have to deal with this.
But best outcome possible.
Though not for Boeing that makes the planes
or the airlines that use them.
Honestly this could have been so much worse, right?
Because reportedly no one was sitting in 26A, 26B,
which is where the door plug was.
And luckily the three passengers
who reportedly had babies in their laps
were far enough away.
Also, they're lucky it actually happened when it happened.
Right? If they had been at cruising altitude,
which they were just minutes away,
a number of passengers and crew likely
would've unbuckled their seat belts.
And so in the wake of all this, the FAA was like,
"Boeing, what the fuck?"
and they ordered them to ground 171 of the 218 MAX 9 planes
that are in operation,
at least until they can be inspected.
That causing Boeing's stock to nosedive.
They canceled hundreds of scheduled flights.
In fact, on my flight back from New York on Saturday,
I ran into one of you beautiful bastards
'cause they were actually scheduled to be on a Max 9
but then had to get on our plane.
You know, naturally with this situation,
you have a lot of people making comparisons, right,
to other recent disasters with the company's 737 Max planes,
with the most notable being in 2018 and 2019,
two MAX 8s crashing on international flights,
killing 346 people,
which ended up with all MAX 8 and MAX 9 planes
to be grounded worldwide for nearly two years.
That is until Boeing made changes
to an automated flight control system.
And this is just as last December,
Boeing was urging airlines to check their 737 MAX jets
for loose bolts because a discovery was made
of at least two planes with improperly tightened nuts.
And this, as I was recording this,
we're learning that United Airlines
has reportedly found loose bolts and parts
in at least five Max 9s while inspecting the plug doors.
And so of course with this, one of the biggest questions is,
"Well, what the hell happens from here?"
And the current answer is,
we actually don't have any fucking clue.
As far as what we do know,
the MAX 9 in question rolled off the assembly line
and received its certification just two months ago,
performing 145 flights since then.
When the door plug blew out,
that was actually the plane's third flight that day.
Also regarding the door, it has been found,
with a school teacher only known as Bob
discovering the door plug in his backyard.
Which honestly, I would pay good money
to see what Bob's reaction was.
Was it just a simple straight up, "What the fuck?"
or was it kinda like the blank stare of,
"Did I, did I get high and I don't remember it?"
There are also two cell phones found there,
one in the backyard, the other on the side of the road.
And actually great news for one of the phone owners.
The guy who spotted the second one
said it was perfectly intact. It was still in airplane mode.
It worked. It just had a severed charger.
And he immediately knew where it came from
because it opened to a page
displaying baggage claim information for flight 1282.
Also, we've seen some big updates
like NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy
revealing some crucial details during a press briefing,
saying that the MAX 9's auto depressurization fail light
lit up during three previous flights
on December 7th, January 3rd, and January 4th,
which could either mean that
something was wrong with the pressurization
or something was just wrong with the light.
- In these three previous flights,
after the light illuminated,
they flipped the switch to alt mode, which is normal.
There's a backup. It was very benign.
Nothing occurred, very benign.
The light illuminated, they flipped it, they reported it,
it was tested by maintenance, and then reset.
- As far as whether or not those incidents
actually had anything to do with flight 1282,
currently we're getting a shoulder shrug.
She said that she doesn't know,
but she did disclose that Alaska Airlines imposed
what's called an ETOPS restriction on that plane
right before the door plug incident,
meaning that it was prevented from flying overseas to Hawaii
so that if something went wrong
they'd be able to return to land quickly.
And she also added that the airline had ordered
an additional maintenance check for the failed light
that was not completed before the incident.
And so all of that seems to suggest that
Alaska Airlines may have known that
there was at least some sort of risk of failure.
They just kept that MAX 9 flying anyway.
As we wait to see what else comes from this investigation,
I gotta pass the question off to you.
What are your thoughts with this craziness?
Like for you, is this a growing concern
or do you see these situations
as outliers that will figure themselves out?
Really, any of your thoughts.
You know, I haven't seen you since before Christmas,
so I'd love to hear from you.
And then in social media news,
you had Andrew Tate and Taylor Swift popping up.
Andrew Tate allegedly choked a woman
until she passed out and threatened to kill her,
with that being one of the biggest claims
to come from this new documentary about him.
It was also reportedly supposed to include
interviews with Tate himself,
but apparently he got arrested for that could happen.
With the anonymous woman saying that
he threatened to kill her, he said he owned her,
he would pin her up against the wall.
Though this as a Tate spokesperson denied the allegation,
saying his encounters have always been consensual.
We're still waiting to find out when
his trial over human trafficking allegations
is going to start.
And then as far as Taylor Swift,
while a lot of the conversations now focused on Jo Koy,
who absolutely bombed the Golden Globes last night,
though, that was for a number of reasons.
People didn't laugh at his jokes.
He said, or maybe joked,
that the ones that weren't funny were from the writers,
but some of the dumb ones being about Barbie
and also Taylor Swift. But prior to that,
a lot of people were angry about
Taylor Swift in The New York Times.
And that's because they ran this opinion piece
by Anna Marks, which was titled,
"Look What We Made Taylor Swift Do."
And in it they heavily speculate
that Taylor is a closeted queer woman.
And in this, you know, the author says that
Taylor's been making regular hints to this in her music,
arguing, you know, if there were
only one or two references over the years, whatever.
But then arguing, when combined,
"they suggest to queer people that she is one of us.
They also suggest that her art may be far more complex
than the eclipsing nature of her celebrity
may allow, even now."
And trying to back that up by arguing, you know,
Taylor Swift has often encouraged fans
to search for clues, search for Easter eggs in her work.
And while some were like,
"Hey, this could be an interesting exploration,
to have the biggest artist on the fucking planet
might still feel forced to hide her sexuality."
But the vast majority of fans have been pissed off
and a source close to Taylor reportedly saying,
"There seems to be no boundary
some journalists won't cross when writing about Taylor,
regardless of how invasive, untrue, and inappropriate it is,
all under the protective veil of an 'opinion piece.'"
You also had country singer Chely Wright,
where she was mentioned in the editorial
because she's a gay singer who was once closeted
and she actually nearly took her life,
slamming this story, writing,
"I think it was awful of The New York Times to publish.
Triggering for me to read.
Not because the writer mentioned my nearly ending my life,
but seeing a public person's sexuality
being discussed is upsetting."
And personally I'll say, you know,
I understand there's a conversation to be had
around gay baiting.
If you've never watched this show, it's over now,
but it's called The Other Two.
They have a fantastic episode where they take on the topic.
But Taylor, whether she's telling the truth or not,
which it doesn't fucking matter to me,
nor should it matter to anyone,
has previously said, you know,
she tries to advocate for the LGBTQ+ community,
which she says is a community "that I'm not a part of."
So I get, for the most part, Taylor Swift equals views
because yeah, an opinion piece might actually make sense
if she did come out and say some things
and it's like, "Wow, that's crazy in retrospect."
But when you push these conversations in major publications,
it's very close, if not exactly,
trying to push someone out of a closet
they may or may not be in.
And is that the environment you want to create?
But from that, we're gonna talk about more news
you need to know today after I pay some bills.
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And then y'all need to stop freaking out
about Stanley tumblers.
Also, if you're not a part of this group, I'm sorry,
I didn't mean to loop you into this.
Because it's not just cringey stuff
like people making Stanleys their whole fucking personality,
but we're seeing situations where
people are getting trampled for Stanleys.
You know, someone actually bought one for me recently.
It has my name on it.
I was like, "Oh cool, kind of keeps my water cold."
Saw that video where
that woman's car was completely totaled,
the Stanley remains supreme.
And in a genius marketing move,
Stanley actually bought that woman a new car.
And all this attention, this craze
has resulted in Stanley revenue absolutely skyrocketing
to $750 million in 2023.
And if you like the cup, cool.
But when videos start popping up
where people are literally stampeding a Target
to buy a limited edition Valentine's Day Stanley cup,
it makes you wonder did these people go fucking crazy?
"Oh, Stanley made a new limited edition cup
in collaboration with Starbucks?
Time to Heisman a five-year-old."
And the crazy thing is that
it wasn't just around that one Target.
You had people sharing videos of themselves
literally camping outside of the stores
like it was Black Friday 10 years ago.
And when you dive into this, like,
you realize there's this whole alternate world.
People posting videos sharing their massive collections,
people bragging that they have a Stanley cup
to match every outfit.
Which also, I gotta say,
maybe I'm a dumb fuck for saying this,
I thought part of maybe the mission,
but at least the idea of having something like a Stanley is
"Hey, you know, plastic's bad.
Let me just have this metal tumbler that I refill
and I make myself feel like,
'Hey, I'm doing less harm to the planet.'"
But I guess, I don't know, capitalism's gonna capitalism.
You know, it might be weird that I'm saying this.
I have numerous businesses, I try to sell things to people.
I hope that they like it.
But I don't know, I find myself thinking about something,
someone more thoughtful originally said it,
but it feels like we as a society have gotten to this place
where our consumerism defines us.
And not only that, we've gotten to a place
where we're excited to be advertised to.
Take the Super Bowl for example,
there're gonna be people that wanna watch football,
there're gonna be people
that wanna watch that Halftime Show,
and then there are people that are gonna tune into that
just to see the new ads.
And for many, it ends up going even further
where like our value or happiness,
at least our idea of happiness in life as a human
somehow gets tangled up into how good of a consumer we are.
Like does what I'm saying make sense or does it?
Is it just the ramblings of an old man?
And then Donald Trump versus Joe Biden.
We're just eight days into the new year
and things have kicked off, which is to be expected,
but there's so much news, it's easy to miss stuff.
Some of the things are just absolutely wild,
but really there's no reason
to expect anything less for the rest of the year.
But luckily, I got you.
And we'll start with the continued efforts we're seeing
to get Trump off the ballot, right?
The idea being that he led an insurrection
so he's not qualified to be on the ballot.
And here for all you visual learners,
Axios actually provided a handy dandy map
of the current status of the state's effort.
We're seeing no challenges in 17 states.
Challenges dismissed in 13,
decision or appeals pending in 19.
And Trump of course disqualified so far
in Maine and Colorado.
The Supreme Court, as of last Friday,
officially taking up Trump's appeal regarding Colorado.
Also, on the note of January 6th,
we actually got more footage of the peaceful protesters.
You know, those kind folks who were taking
a non-violent, good intentioned tour of the capitol.
- [Insurrectionist 1] If we gotta hang
a bunch of crooked congressmen, we'll do that!
- [Insurrectionist 2] You guys can get the same paycheck
when the government gets replaced with real governors.
- [Insurrectionist 3] Yeah!
- You also had a lot of people fighting about
Ashli Babbitt. Among other things,
people sharing drastically different videos of her.
Some where it appears like she's marching
and she's calmly talking to the camera.
Others where she's hysterically yelling at the camera
while driving.
- Every single one of you politicians in California,
Gavin Newsom, Jerry Brown, Maxine Waters, Duncan Hunter,
what the hell are you doing?
- And then of course, in addition
to the footage showing numerous angles and moments
leading up to Ashli Babbitt getting shot.
And with that, we also learned that
Ashli Babbitt's family is suing,
filing a $30 million lawsuit,
arguing, "Ashli posed no threat to the safety of anyone."
Though that, as many agree that the footage actually shows,
that it was a completely justified shooting.
And others noting that a Capitol Police investigation
found that Capitol Police Lieutenant Michael Byrd,
he followed department policy and violated no laws.
But also, you know,
bigger picture regarding the other people there,
specifically the 1,265 people who have been charged so far
and the roughly 750 who have been sentenced
for their criminal involvement on January 6th,
we've been getting to see a range of reactions.
You've had the likes of Christian pastor Bill Cooks
speaking to the FBI agents
arresting January 6th insurrectionists.
- And so I wanna say to my friends in the FBI,
keep doing it because death is about to execute
a no-knock warrant on you. On you.
He's going to invade your domicile, this body,
and take you out of it.
And when he does, you're gonna stand before God.
It's not gonna be pleasant.
- Meanwhile, you've got Trump calling them
"mistreated hostages," which also,
based off of a recent Stefanik interview,
makes me feel like this is how
they're gonna be trying to frame the situation.
Trump also calling for their release
and vowing to pardon them if he's elected.
And while many of you watch it,
probably find that absolutely crazy,
that it is absolutely revisionist history
to call these people who attacked the Capitol hostages,
right, because they're being held accountable.
That has very much become
the major and popular Republican opinion,
with, in fact, not only nearly 70% of Republicans
believing Biden's 2020 election win was not legitimate,
but 2/3 supporting pardons for people
who forced their way into the Capitol.
But possibly the most concerning polling
was across party lines,
with not only 70% believing that
US democracy is under threat,
but about half expecting violence
over future presidential elections.
And while I'm definitely among those
because I have eyes and ears,
depending on the person,
they have these beliefs for very different reasons.
And in fact, political violence has become such a topic
since January 6th,
Joe Biden actually spoke on it over the weekend
while Trump and Biden were taking swings at each other.
And with Trump, we saw him try to frame Biden's speech
as him just like stuttering and struggling through it.
- That's why Crooked Joe is staging
his pathetic fearmongering campaign event
in Pennsylvania today. Did you see him?
He was stuttering through the whole thing.
He's going, "Ah bah gah dah. He's a threat to democracy."
- And him doing that between, like,
other random dumb shit he was saying.
Like he randomly started talking about magnets.
- They had a almost billion dollar cost overrun
on the magnetic elevators. Think of it. Magnets.
Now, all I know about magnets is this.
Give me a glass of water. Let me drop it on the magnets.
That's the end of the magnets.
Why didn't they use John Deere?
Why didn't they bring in the John Deere people?
Do you like John Deere? I like John Deere.
- While that clip eventually got community noted,
please, for the love of God, know that
that is not how magnets work.
But then, like with the Biden speech,
there were numerous big things that he hit on.
With the one point Biden seeming to stop himself
from calling Trump a sick fuck.
- Political violence is never ever acceptable
in the United States political system.
Never, never, never. (audience applauds)
It has no place in a democracy. None!
He can't be pro-insurrectionist and pro-American.
You had Trump and his MAGA supporters
not only embrace political violence,
but they laugh about it.
At his rally, he jokes about an intruder,
whipped up by the big Trump lie,
taking a hammer to Paul Pelosi's skull
and echoing the very same words used on January 6th.
"Where's Nancy?" And he thinks that's funny.
He laughed about it. What a sick...
(audience laughs)
- So Biden pointing out that Donald Trump's rhetoric
has really started sounding a little familiar.
- He talks about the blood of Americans being poisoned,
echoing the same exact language used in Nazi Germany.
He proudly posts on social media
the words that best describe his 2024 campaign.
Quote, "Revenge."
Quote, "Power."
Quote, "Dictatorship."
There's no confusion about who Trump is.
- And Biden also talking about how
Republican politicians and conservative media
have just flip flopped on January 6th.
- When the attack on January 6th happened,
there was no doubt about the truth.
At the time, even Republican members of Congress
and Fox News commentators
publicly and privately condemned the attack.
As one Republican senator said,
"Trump's behavior was embarrassing
and humiliating for the country."
But now that same senator
and those same people have changed their tune.
As time has gone on, gone on, politics, fear, money,
all have intervened.
And now these MAGA voices
who know the truth about Trump on January 6th
have abandoned the truth and abandoned the democracy.
They made their choice.
Now the rest of us: Democrats, independents,
mainstream Republicans, we have to make our choice.
I know mine and I believe I know America's.
We'll defend the truth, not give into the big lie.
We'll embrace the Constitution and the Declaration,
not abandon it.
We'll honor the sacred cause of democracy,
not walk away from it.
Today I make this sacred pledge to you.
The defense, protection, and preservation
of American democracy will remain as it has been,
the central cause of my presidency.
- With all that said, you know, you're generally up to date.
Granted this whole situation is gonna be
the dumpster fire that does not stop giving
and won't stop giving
even though you want to get off the ride.
But in a world with so much noise and misinformation,
I got you covered.
And I'll be with you this year through the chaos
'cause it's the most important one since the last one
and the one before that. Woo.
And that is essentially where I'm gonna end today's show.
Except for this last thing. This is just me speaking to you
because I know I kind of just dove straight into the news.
First daily show back of the year. Welcome back.
I hope you had a fantastic Christmas
or whatever holiday you celebrate,
that the new year is treating you well so far.
I had a great break.
I essentially did nothing for a while here
and hung out with my kids.
Then last week we went to New York for a few days,
ended up seeing some like Broadway shows.
Wicked was awesome. Six was phenomenal.
In fact, everything was great about the break until,
ugh, last night or I guess this morning at 1:00 AM,
I woke up with some sort of stomach bug.
I was just, ugh, I was throwing up for like hours.
But fingers crossed, I think, I think I'm on...
I'm slowly on the mend.
It's feeling like one of those 24-hour things.
And don't worry, I'll see you tomorrow
'cause these first weeks back are always tricky.
It's like trying to catch up on things
while trying to include all the things that are happening.
That said, thank you for being a part of this one.
I love yo' faces and I'll see you right back here tomorrow.